I saw a picture of this silly sheep when I browsed some animal pictures on the internet for Little A's homework last night. So I cut out the silly sheep from the egg sheets and put it on the top of steamed rice. I was looking for my butterfly puncher and cutter to make a butterfly on the silly sheep's nose then remembered that I have the butterfly pick. I quickly use that. I need to re-arrange all the food picks in my boxes this afternoon. I don't know how many sets that I have collected so far. I am not obsessed to collect them but when I find a new cute set, normally I can't resist to buy it. My bento shopping isn't so crazy as before, believe me. I try to cut down the budget for bento shopping this year. I only buy something that I will use and I need for my bento making. Inside the other round box : spam meat with egg, fish cake tofu, cherry tomatoes, and stir fried Chinese cabbage with carrots.

Today's bento is as requested by my kids. They love to watch Pokemon movie at home. And they have been talking about the new Pokemon character in the movie. So this morning, I got up early and made this new Pokemon character called Snivy (Japanese : Tsutarja). Kids can remember each Pokemon character's name, what they will evolve to, what type it is, and so on. I mean there are hundreds of the character in Pokemon. How come they know each one of them? Anyway, I think my boy will be pretty happy with the today's bento. He asked me so many times to make Pokemon bento for him. Inside the blue round box : strawberries, kumquats, sauteed chicken with yellow paprika, and water spinach & soy bean paste stir fry. The water spinach was too dark green, so I cut out little butterfly to make a contrast. Today's food picks that I used were from a dearest bento friend, Megan. Thanks a lot Megan to send it all the way for me! She sent them to me last year and I kept it for so long in the box that I almost forgot to use it. Glad to use it to add bright yellow color in the box.

Friday is here! It means the weekend is coming and I couldn't wait. I felt so bored this week and hubby is still glued to his tons of job. When you do the same routines everyday for so many years, I think it is normal that you feel bored. Not complaining for the routines that I have to do for my family or being selfish about it, but I really need a break and I think I deserve that. Today's bento was a quick one again. It was easy to prepare and I hope those 2 little pandas didn't melt before the lunch time. I made it from cheese and nori, put them on the top of the rice balls. I put some middle wings fried chicken, sweetened red cherry, kani & edamame salad (dressing in the separate container, not pictured), carrot flowers, and 'egg noodle'. Psstt .... That egg noddle was actually omelet that I sliced thinly so looked like a noodle. Enjoy your day and wish everyone a great weekend ahead!

My twin bento is actually an identical bento for the kids. So they always get exactly a same bento. Of course I don't always buy the same bento boxes for them but I have some bento boxes, same size and shape, only different in color. As you can see from the picture, my girl took the pink 2-tiers box and the boy took the yellow one. I love to use same bento boxes for them because it saved me a lot of time to put everything inside. Basically just copy and 'paste' from one to the other box :) Big A seems ok this morning, still have a little cough but I think she can do her swimming test very well. I made these simple rabbits with rabbit head shaped cutter and clover cutter. As clover means lucky leaf, so these rabbits are lucky rabbits. I hope they bring luck to Big A. I ran out fish ball and kamaboko, so I used hard boiled egg to make the rabbit. Just punched the cutter on the hard boiled egg and for the clover just soaked them in water with green food coloring. Linked this bento to What's For Lunch Wednesday.

I bought Hippomum's new bento book. I love this book! You can check on her blog chaRa-beN workout and the book can be ordered online from the book store here. Her bento book contains 141 pages written in Chinese which give me so much benefit because I can read it. A lot of tips and step-by-step pictures, so don't worry if you can't read Chinese. The pictures are pretty clear to tell you how to make the kyaraben bento. She is one of the creative & talented bento moms and she is very neat for every details in her bento making. Some recipes are available too at the back.

I made a speedy bento for the kids. I was not feeling very inspired to do any egg sheet cutting or to make any cute characters today. So I just did a simple and quick one. It took me less than 10 minutes to put everything inside the box, made this bento looked so effortless. I put two kumquats, baby corn & baby carrot stir fry, kani roll from dinner leftover and baby tomato roses. Sprinkled furikake on the top of the rice and used duck food picks to decorate. Big A got a flu and started to cough lightly since yesterday. She will have the swimming test tomorrow and unfortunately we can't ask permission for her to skip the test. Everyone has to do it on the same day. I am just worried that she will come home tomorrow with fever or worst flu and cough. Pray and hope that she will be alright after the test.

Please support Bento4Japan via eBay auctions.

Many items have been added to the list.

Welcome to Monday again! Hope all of you had a great weekend and everyone can have a great start for this week. Kids' school hours are now back to normal until 2PM after the mid-test last week. Bento is back to normal lunch size. I made a puppy from rice and decorated it with nori, jelly ball, and inari skin. Inside the box : steamed rice, bean sprouts & spring onion stir fry, cherry tomatoes, fish & cucumbers in yellow spices, and carrots. I hope the fish will not be too spicy, I used sweet chili so kids can still eat it. My girl has no problem with spicy foods now, but my boy is still adjusting from the mild level. Soon, I can put more spicy foods in their bento.

The Bento4Japan auctions on eBay are still going on.

Please support and check it out if you have time.

Today is the last day of the mid-test for the kids. Although next week they will still have their swimming and PE field test, that will not make me worry because I know they can do well. I made a snack bento for the kids today. They only have 15 minutes break between 2 subject tests. I didn't need a lot of time to prepare this snack bento for them. I explained to them that those little angels with little onigiri are the symbols that I made for all of the bento friends around the world who have helped and joined forces to raise funds for Japan.

For all of you who doesn't know about Bento4Japan, please visit Bento4Japan HQ.

Find out more on how can you help and take part.

Bento4Japan auction on eBay is still going on, please check it out here.

Today's small pack bento was made to give supports for the people in Japan. Pray for them to be strong to face what happened in there, never give up hope. Although the tsunami has stopped but the impact of the tsunami will take quite some times for the people and the government to rebuild and restore their homes and the city. I saw from the news last night that earthquakes were still happening in some areas and the nuclear crisis just made so many people worried about it. Some bento friends are trying to raise funds for Japan in so many ways. What I can think is a quick money donation sent to IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross). Or you can follow me to make your money donation via PayPal where you can choose from 8 non-profit organizations to put your money donation. PayPal is very secure site and the process is very quick and easy. You can donate starting from USD 5 and choose the non-profit organization that you like from the drop down box at the bottom of the page. And you can get your donation receipt right away on the last step. For Indonesian readers, if you are not familiar with PayPal but still want to make donation, please contact me via twitter or leave a comment with your e-mail address so I can contact you. Then I will explain it to you and guide you step-by-step if needed. I urge all of you who read my post, please support Japan and make your money donation now. As this will be a great help for people there. I remembered what happened in Aceh tsunami on 2004 where many foreign countries including Japan gave so many supports. This time is our turn to give back and helping out.

You can also check what other bento friends are doing to raise funds for Japan and participate :

Bento4Japan - eBay Auction - here

Bento4Japan - Donation - here & here

Entering a new week and my weekend passed so quickly, I didn't feel that I just had a weekend this week *sigh*. My husband and I arrived in Jakarta from Singapore on Saturday noon and had a traffic jam on the way home for couple of hours - it took us longer from the airport to our house than from Singapore to Jakarta LOL. It just tired us. Miss the kids and finally got home around 2.30PM, saw their happy faces were priceless. Hubby's medical check up result was all good but he got an infection for his sinus that has to be treated for 2 weeks. His sinus has been gone bad lately and went to many doctors in Jakarta but with no good results. That was why we decided to check with the doctor in Singapore. Pray for him so the medicines will work well on him and his sinus can be treated well too.

I met two wonderful persons, Tona and her cute son, Kimi on Saturday. Tona is one of the bento moms from Singapore. You can see her blog here. We went out for lunch, had a chit chat, and did a little bit of shopping on the way back to the hotel I stayed. I had a great time with her and Kimi. Thanks a lot Tona for everything! I hope we can meet again next time. Although I couldn't get much online when I was Singapore but eventually I manage to get online from the hotel's wi-fi and was shocked to see the tweets about Japan's earthquake and tsunami on Saturday. I was waiting for my hubby from the hospital at the hotel room and my heart sunk to see the pictures from CNN news about the earthquake and tsunami. Thanks God that all friends that I know were ok and safe. This is a traumatic experience for the people living there. I know this experience has been exhausting both mentally and physically to my friends. My thoughts and prayers are with them. Thanks to Makiko Itoh, the writer of The Just Bento Cookbook and the owner of Just Bento and Just Hungry blogs. She has been worked very hard to tweet and keep updating about the latest situation in Japan. You can follow her on her twitter @makiwi. And if you would like to make some donations, please check on her post here.

This week my kids will sit on the mid-test. As usual, they will be dismissed from the school earlier and have lunch at home. So this week, I will just prepare small portion bento or snack bento for them. I made onigiri bread stuffed with pork floss for them and put some fruits inside the box.

My boy said to me last night to make a special bento because he would miss us when we were away in Singapore tomorrow and Friday. I said how about airplane but he said no. So I made mom and dad characters with a big heart for today's bento. Hope he can feel our love through this bento. I also made his favorite steamed meat balls from ground turkey, diced carrot and glass noodle. Added stir-fried chayote & edamame, omelet with red paprika, and cherry tomatoes. I know that cherry tomato isn't his favorite but I'm still trying to put that for his bento. Stubborn mom LOL :D I hope I can manage to get online from Singapore to see all of your beautiful bento. But as for me, this bento is the last one for this week. Sorry for being so unproductive this week. Happy bentoing everyone!

Hope all of you had a great time over the weekend!

My kids didn't make it to the final spelling bee contest on Saturday. Little A was taking it easy but Big A was disappointed. So after the contest we went out to have lunch, bought some books at the Kinokuniya book store, and watched a movie. Big A seemed happy and forgot her disappointment. I got the newest Akinoichigo's bento book (8th) that I ordered 2 weeks ago. I'm her fans and have been learning so much about charaben bento from her bento books. Her newest book is very inspiring as always, a lot of fresh ideas inside. You can see her other bento books that I posted here and here.

I made 2 green girls. Shaped the onigiri by hand and used green deco furi for the green part of the onigiri. Also stuffed some char siu inside the onigiri. Inside the other box : hard boiled egg, stir-fried lap cheong with celery, stir -ried veggies (carrots & cauliflower). Yesterday, I did 3 simple bento photo shoots including step-by-step for Sekar magazine. It was a great experience! And I wanna thank TUM and Sekar Magazine for the opportunity. This week, I will just prepare bento for today and tomorrow. I will be in Singapore from Thursday until Saturday. My parents will stay at my house and look after the kids.

2 more days for the kids to practice at school and at home before their spelling bee contest on Saturday. We have been doing so much practice at home in the afternoon. Anything can happened on Saturday but I really hope the kids will do their best. I made a 'spelling' bee for their bento. The bee looks a bit dizzy, maybe it suffers from too much spelling practice LOL :D Instead of 1 hour lunch time. The kids will only have 30 minutes lunch time today because the English teacher will have some tests for them to prepare for the contest. Hope they can finish their lunch quick. Kids were asking for fried rice bento but hey ... Mommy didn't have that 'blank' day anymore this morning, so fried rice bento will be served next time. Inside the boxes : steamed rice, stir fry Chinese spinach and corns, fried egg, pan fried chicken with oyster sauce, mun tofu, and cherry tomatoes.

I really went blank today. Woke up this morning, went to the kitchen 'blank' ... Opened the fridge 'blank' ... Took bento boxes in the cabinet 'blank' ... What was wrong with me? I really wanted to 'boo', to surprise myself so I could get rid of this 'blank' thing in my head LOL :D Finally, I managed to cook a quick chicken fried rice. This is my first time to make Hinamatsuri (Girls' Day in Japan on March,3) bento. I made some colored egg sheets and used various small cutters to cut out the characters. Put them on the top of the fried rice. Added some prawn crackers on the top side of the box. After took the picture, I realized that those crackers will get soggy if I put them in the same box with the fried rice. Then I moved the crackers to a small airtight container. This way the kids can still enjoy their crispy crackers at their lunch time :)

Didn't have any mood to prepare bento from yesterday but finally managed to make it this morning. I think I got way too tired over the weekend which made my week started so slow and uninspiring. Hope tonight I can pull myself together again and find some ideas to make bento for this week. I did a simple and quick cooking for today's bento. Inside the box : yellow bird on the top of the rice, cucumber flowers, sauteed chicken minced meat with tofu & potato, stir fry chayote, half hard boiled egg, and strawberries. Salt and pepper were put inside the small yellow food cup.

I baked some buttermilk cookies on Sunday night to join the fun with other tweeps this month for #twitterfoodparty #twittercookieparty ... You can join this event too. #twitterfoodparty is held every month (on every last Monday) with a different theme.